Understanding Acoustic Emission Testing- Reading 1 Part B-A

16.6.5 Type of Aggregate
It is not certain whether the mineralogy of the aggregate has any effect on
acoustic emission. It has been reported that concretes with a smaller
maximum aggregate size produce a greater number of acoustic emission
counts than those with a larger aggregate size; however, the total energy
released by the finer aggregate concrete is reduced. This is attributed to the
observation that concretes made with smaller aggregates start to crack at
lower stresses; in concretes with larger aggregate particles, on the other hand,
individual acoustic events emit higher energies. For concretes made with
lightweight aggregates, the total number of counts is also greater than for
normal weight concrete, perhaps because of cracking occurring in the
aggregates themselves.
Charlie Chong/ Fion Zhang